American Gods Bosses Bryan Fuller And Michael Green Leave Show Over Budget Issues

Prior to the beginning of production on Season 2, American Gods is looking for a new showrunner. Bryan Fuller and Michael Green, the team behind the Starz adaptation of the 2001 Neil Gaiman novel, have opted to leave the series.

The news comes from Variety, which reports that Fuller and Green's exit comes after clashing with FreemantleMedia, the production company behind the series, over budget concerns and creative direction. While it's believed that each episode of Season 2 war nearing a price tag of $10 million, the two executive producers were pushing for more.

While no replacement has been named yet, Deadline reports that more than half of the scripts to be used in Season 2 have already been written. At the very least, they should provide some creative direction for whoever takes over showrunner duties on the show.

If you're hoping that perhaps Gaiman himself may join the series in an expanded role, it's not likely to happen. The author himself already shut down that possibility on Twitter, noting that he's already busy serving as showrunner on Amazon's Good Omens, another adaptation of his works.

Following the news that the Fuller and Green were departing, American Gods star Ricky Whittle (Shadow Moon) took to social media to say goodbye to the pair. "You will always be apart of the American Gods family and I will always be grateful to you for the opportunity of working with you," he writes in a lengthy Twitter post.

This is the second time in just over a year that Fuller has departed a major series. In October 16, he stepped down as showrunner of Star Trek: Discovery before the series went into production. He will next work on a reboot of Amazing Stories, which is being produced by Apple. Green, for his part, is venturing back to the big screen as he writes a sequel to Murder on the Orient Express.